X-tal
Encyclopedia
X-tal was a San Francisco
-based rock
band that existed under various incarnations from 1983 until 1996.
) and drummer Michael "Mick" Freeman. Neo offers this explanation of the band's name: "Still no agreement on a band name until Maati [Stojanovich, Neo's girlfriend] sees a graffiti on a sidewalk in the Tenderloin reading 'XTAL.' No one hates it; it grows on you. Somewhere along the line a hyphen is added to make it easier to pronounce, but for the next 13 years, confusion ensues as to whether the letter 't' is capitalized. (It's not.)"
The trio's first two gigs were at San Francisco's On Broadway in late 1983. The band put out a demo in 1984, then broke up in 1985, with band members moving on to other projects.
When two songs from X-tal's demo were included on the 1987 SF Unscene compilation and attracted some attention, Neo and Freeman reformed the band, eventually settling on a lineup with Mitzi Waltz on bass and Jimmy (Demetrius) Broustis on guitar. (Broustis hails from Libertyville, Illinois
, a small town that produced a number of alternative music
figures; Broustis was in the same class at Libertyville High School
as Adam Jones
of Tool
.)
This lineup played frequently at San Francisco's Albion, and released X-tal's first album, Reason is 6/7 of Treason, in 1990. The CMJ New Music Report (March 30, 1990) said the record "scoops up the morning-dew innocence of the least embarrassing Haight-Ashbury petal-babies of the `60s with the world-bleary wisdom of all those SF/LA punk-worn people who turned their matured underground gaze upon gentler, more introspective directions."
With Allison Moseley replacing Waltz on bass, X-tal recorded Die Monster Die, released in 1991. This second album was called "wiser and angrier" by CMJ (March 29, 1991), which deemed it "first-class world punk music." The disc's more political songs included "An Old Colonial's Hard Luck Story" (the band's first and only single), about the self-pity of Rhodesia
n exiles, and "Domino's Theory," a six-minute protest song tying together Domino's Pizza
's labor policies and food quality to CEO Tom Monaghan
's alleged support for the Nicaraguan Contras and Operation Rescue
:
The same band members, with guest Carrie Bradley of Ed's Redeeming Qualities
, produced 1992's Everything Crash, which [ Allmusic] called "an excellent album that makes the brain dance." After this release, Broustis left the group, eventually replaced by Mark Zanandrea. The two albums recorded with Zanandrea were released in Germany
, where the band had a considerable following. In 1996, the last incarnation of X-tal broke up. In 2006, they played a well-attended reunion concert in San Francisco.
When the first lineup of X-tal broke up, Korn formed a band called The Cat Heads with singer/guitarist Mark Zanandrea, who played guitar in the latter days of X-tal. Zanandrea had released the above-mentioned SF Unscene compilation. The Catheads also included guitarist Sam Babbitt and drummer-singer Melanie Clarin.
Between the first and second incarnations of X-tal, a band called God and His Dog (described by Neo as having "the impossible ambition to be a cross between the Pogues
and Sonic Youth
") was formed by Neo, Freeman, Stojanovich, Patty Stirling, and Jeremy O'Doughaill (formerly of the band Honor Role). Several songs written for God and His Dog ended up on X-tal and Cat Heads albums.
Jeremy O'Doughaill went on to be in a band called the Bedlam Rovers with two future members of X-tal's final lineup: drummer Theo Denaxas and violinist/accordionist Morgan Fichter.
After leaving X-tal, Broustis played with the bands Strawman and Shotwell.
Neo's post-X-tal vehicles are J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers, the Experimental Bunnies, and the Granite Countertops.
Mitzi Waltz is now a lecturer on autism
at the University of Birmingham
(England).
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
-based rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band that existed under various incarnations from 1983 until 1996.
History
The original line-up included frontman J. Neo (Marvin), bassist Alan Korn (formerly of SF's The Cat HeadsThe Cat Heads
The Cat Heads were an indie rock band from San Francisco. The band formed in 1985 with a later line-up recording as The Cat Heads.-History:...
) and drummer Michael "Mick" Freeman. Neo offers this explanation of the band's name: "Still no agreement on a band name until Maati [Stojanovich, Neo's girlfriend] sees a graffiti on a sidewalk in the Tenderloin reading 'XTAL.' No one hates it; it grows on you. Somewhere along the line a hyphen is added to make it easier to pronounce, but for the next 13 years, confusion ensues as to whether the letter 't' is capitalized. (It's not.)"
The trio's first two gigs were at San Francisco's On Broadway in late 1983. The band put out a demo in 1984, then broke up in 1985, with band members moving on to other projects.
When two songs from X-tal's demo were included on the 1987 SF Unscene compilation and attracted some attention, Neo and Freeman reformed the band, eventually settling on a lineup with Mitzi Waltz on bass and Jimmy (Demetrius) Broustis on guitar. (Broustis hails from Libertyville, Illinois
Libertyville, Illinois
Libertyville is an affluent northern suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2000 census population was 20,742; the 2005 estimate was 21,760...
, a small town that produced a number of alternative music
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
figures; Broustis was in the same class at Libertyville High School
Libertyville High School
Libertyville High School, or LHS, is a public four-year high school located in Libertyville, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States...
as Adam Jones
Adam Jones (musician)
Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
of Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
.)
This lineup played frequently at San Francisco's Albion, and released X-tal's first album, Reason is 6/7 of Treason, in 1990. The CMJ New Music Report (March 30, 1990) said the record "scoops up the morning-dew innocence of the least embarrassing Haight-Ashbury petal-babies of the `60s with the world-bleary wisdom of all those SF/LA punk-worn people who turned their matured underground gaze upon gentler, more introspective directions."
With Allison Moseley replacing Waltz on bass, X-tal recorded Die Monster Die, released in 1991. This second album was called "wiser and angrier" by CMJ (March 29, 1991), which deemed it "first-class world punk music." The disc's more political songs included "An Old Colonial's Hard Luck Story" (the band's first and only single), about the self-pity of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
n exiles, and "Domino's Theory," a six-minute protest song tying together Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
's labor policies and food quality to CEO Tom Monaghan
Tom Monaghan
Thomas Stephen "Tom" Monaghan is an entrepreneur and Catholic philanthropist and activist who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983-1992....
's alleged support for the Nicaraguan Contras and Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is a pro-life organization which originated in California and is now based in Kansas....
:
- A fortune made on cardboard crust
- Is a gun pointed at our subversive lust
- And a Midwest multi-millionaire
- Can finance right-wing guerrilla warfare
- Anywhere
The same band members, with guest Carrie Bradley of Ed's Redeeming Qualities
Ed's Redeeming Qualities
Ed's Redeeming Qualities was an alternative folk group that was founded in 1988 and originally consisted of Dan Leone, Dom Leone, Carrie Bradley , and Neno Perrotta. Jonah Winter joined the band for the albums "Big Grapefruit Cleanup Job" and "At The Fish And Game Club"...
, produced 1992's Everything Crash, which [ Allmusic] called "an excellent album that makes the brain dance." After this release, Broustis left the group, eventually replaced by Mark Zanandrea. The two albums recorded with Zanandrea were released in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where the band had a considerable following. In 1996, the last incarnation of X-tal broke up. In 2006, they played a well-attended reunion concert in San Francisco.
Associated bands
There was a proto-version of X-tal that went by various names, including PDR, that included Neo and Alan Korn, along with Annie Hesse or Maati Stojanovich and a series of drummers. Neo considers the first real X-tal lineup to be the one with Mick Freeman.When the first lineup of X-tal broke up, Korn formed a band called The Cat Heads with singer/guitarist Mark Zanandrea, who played guitar in the latter days of X-tal. Zanandrea had released the above-mentioned SF Unscene compilation. The Catheads also included guitarist Sam Babbitt and drummer-singer Melanie Clarin.
Between the first and second incarnations of X-tal, a band called God and His Dog (described by Neo as having "the impossible ambition to be a cross between the Pogues
The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
") was formed by Neo, Freeman, Stojanovich, Patty Stirling, and Jeremy O'Doughaill (formerly of the band Honor Role). Several songs written for God and His Dog ended up on X-tal and Cat Heads albums.
Jeremy O'Doughaill went on to be in a band called the Bedlam Rovers with two future members of X-tal's final lineup: drummer Theo Denaxas and violinist/accordionist Morgan Fichter.
After leaving X-tal, Broustis played with the bands Strawman and Shotwell.
Neo's post-X-tal vehicles are J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers, the Experimental Bunnies, and the Granite Countertops.
Mitzi Waltz is now a lecturer on autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
(England).
Albums
- Reason Is 6/7 Of Treason, 19901990 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
- Die Monster Die , 19911991 in musicSee also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...
- Everything Crash, 19921992 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1992.-January–February:*January 11**Nirvana's Nevermind album goes to #1 in the US Billboard 200 chart, establishing the widespread popularity of the Grunge movement of the 1990s....
- Mayday, 19941994 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.-January–February:*January 25 – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so....
- Biting The Ugly Biscuit (compilation), 19961996 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January – At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the fact...
- The Conqueror Worm, 19961996 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January – At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the fact...
- Who Owns Our Dreams (collection of the best of Mayday and The Conqueror Worm), 20062006 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
Sources
- JNeoMarvin.com: X-tal
- [ Allmusic: Everything Crash]